The Best Present
by XOXheartAmy
Summary: It's Christmas at the Institute, less than a month after the battle with the Sentinels and Phoenix, and one of the X-Men has some unexpected news. Romy; mentions of Jott, Anlocke and Wanda/Kurt; implied Bobbitty


**Written in a week, how awesome am I?**

* * *

"_I promise y', _chère_, I'll find y' again."_

It had been over three months since he'd said that, one and a half since she'd left the Brotherhood and thirty seconds since Hank had given her the results of her annual physical. Oestrogen. Prolactin.

Pregnancy hormones.

She'd never even noticed ,in the chaos of recent events, that she'd missed three periods.

"_I promise y', _chère_, I'll find y' again."_

That was all she had left of him. That vow, the emerald ring on the chain around her neck, and now, her own mini version of him growing inside her.

She was pregnant.

…

"Some punk did _what_ to her!"

Logan obviously wasn't happy with the revelation. She watched through the med-lab doors as the man who was practically her father ranted and raved over the fact that she was going to have a son (Hank confirmed it).

"Get it the hell out of her!"

Rogue's arms folded over her still flat belly. "Ah'm naht losin' him!" she yelled in panic.

Logan whipped round at the sound of her voice. "You can't seriously want to keep it after some bastard did that to you!"

"Did what? Make love tah meh? We wanted this!"

"... What? You weren't...?"

She suddenly understood what he meant. "You thought ah was raped," she said quietly.

Logan silence said it all.

"What were yah thinkin'? That no man could possibleh love meh because of mah mutation? Well here's a news flash foah yah: ah found someone! An' now, thanks tah that _bitch_, ah'm never gonna see him again!" She choked back a sob.

"Rogue, I must implore you calm down. Becoming angry will only increase your blood pressure and jeopardise the livelihood of the foetus."

"Who is he?"

"What does it matter?" Rogue collapsed on the floor, tears streaming down her face, "Ah've lost him."

…

"Ah'm pregnant."

There was a mixed reaction to this: Scott, Warren (who had been returned to normal by the combined efforts of Jean and Betsy, the purple-haired telepath who was now his girlfriend) and Kurt shook her warmly by the hand and congratulated her; Jean, Betsy and Kitty went into 'baby mode', complete with squeals of joy and excitement; Forge yelled "that's brilliant" and began planning how to baby-proof the mansion; Tilde started crying until she was reassured that she would still stay in the mansion, she wasn't being replaced, and that she could be the baby's big sister; and Bobby looked a little confused and asked how she'd gotten around her mutation in the first place.

"After thah mansion blew up, ah went down south tah try an' patch things up with mah folks. Ah never gaht tah Mississippi because ah met this guy an' we fell in love. We went tah stay with his famileh, they lahked meh an'... he asked meh tah marreh him."

"You said 'no', though, right? That's why you're back here?" Kitty asked.

"How come you're pregnant?" Bobby was determined.

"Thah nahght befoah ah left was thah nahght we were... _tahgether_. He asked meh tah marreh him an' ah said 'yes'. Then ah told him ah was ready and, well, yah geth thah ahdea."

"How come you're pregnant?"

"About six months intah our relationship, we found out his mutation cancelled out mahne so we could touch. Ah absorb energeh an' he generates it. We didn't use protection that nahght because we figured there was no point; we were gonna get married so a babeh would be thah most perfect thing to go with it. _Her_ famileh found out about us an' threatened tah massacre his unless he married her. Ah told him he wasn't choosin' meh ovah his famileh but he promised he'd fahnd meh again an' we'd be tahgether."

"Why not go to the police if there were death-threats involved?" Scott asked, "And who's '_her_'?"

"'_Her_' is his supposed-fiancée."

"So the scumbag already had a fiancée and played you?" Logan growled – it was his first time hearing the story.

"No. Thah reason why she's supposed tah be his fiancée, and whah they couldn't go tah thah police, is that they're both are crahme familehs. It was an arranged marriage tah unite them but he didn't want it an' she hated him, she just wanted him wrapped around her little finger."

"Crime family?" Warren asked after the silence that followed her explanation. "Wow, Rogue, you know how to pick 'em: vigilante family, criminal boyfriend."

She gave a wry smile as most (not all – Logan was sulking) of them laughed and after that, the entire conversation lightened up and everything seemed that little bit brighter.

…

Five months later and it was December, a week until Christmas. She was always fairly dour around this time of year, the exception being last year when she'd spent it with him and his family, but this year she was miserable. Why? She was eight months pregnant, without her fiancé, and in the supermarket with Jean buying food for Christmas dinner. Of course, they got plenty of dirty looks from the general shoppers after many had seen them on the news after the whole 'Phoenix saga' and knew they were mutants.

Speaking of the Phoenix...

A tall, blonde woman dressed entirely in white was picking a jar of cranberry sauce off one of the shelves and reading the label.

"Emma?"

The woman looked round and, sure enough, it was Emma Frost, returned to normal.

"How...?"

"I could ask you the same question, Rogue."

"Yah first."

"Somehow, slowly, my shattered diamond form pieced itself back together. The series of 'thefts' were pieces of my body returning to me."

"Ah met a man, fell in love, was supposed to marreh him but... bad things happened."

"Isn't it always the way?" The imposing woman gave a wry smile before turning her attention to the redhead beside Rogue. "Jean, I am truly sorry for trying to steal Scott from you. I should have abandoned my attempts when he made it clear he still loved you. He never gave up on you."

Jean smiled. "I don't blame you; he's easy to love."

…

Over the next hour, the two woman became fast friends. Rogue was bored. She'd bought a bag of pretzels (stupid cravings) and was snacking on them as Jean and Emma discussed the pros and cons of making cranberry sauce yourself.

"Come back to the mansion. You have a place on the team – you more than proved yourself after you gave up what was potentially your life to save us from the Phoenix."

"I will. Believe me, living in an apartment is terrible when you're used to high-class accommodation."

Something brown whipped round the corner ahead of her and for a moment, she was sure... By the time she'd waddled over to see it, however, it had gone.

For one small moment, she's thought she'd seen the tail of a trench coat.

…

Logan wasn't happy. Scott wasn't happy. The others gave Emma the benefit of the doubt. Logan tried to play his _I'm the leader_ card, but with both Jean and Rogue on her side, it was hopeless.

-X-O-X-

"_I promise y', _chère_, I'll find y' again."_

Eight months since he'd said that and he'd done it.

Standing there, eating pretzels, in all her long, green-coated glory, was his fiancée. His... _pregnant fiancée_?

Oh, _Dieu_, she'd found someone else. Someone else she could touch. He couldn't believe it. After only eight months she had moved on and was having another man's child. He'd searched for nothing. He'd bought her that present – the first of however many Christmases and birthdays it took before he found her again – for nothing. She'd moved on.

"_I promise y', _chère_, I'll find y' again."_

It wasn't an empty promise on his part but it was on hers.

He turned on his heel and left the store, hoping she didn't see him and would be happy with _him_.

-X-O-X-

Tilde was having the best Christmas ever, in Rogue's opinion. It was December the twenty-fourth and the little girl was excitedly running around, jabbering about how Santa must be a mutant because only a mutant could visit every house in one night and know exactly what everyone wanted and know if you were asleep so you wouldn't see him delivering the presents and know if you'd been good or bad. It was Bobby's fault, really, for giving her a mug of overly-sugary hot chocolate with marshmallows.

The Ice Cube in question was currently chasing Kitty around with a sprig of mistletoe. She phased through the sofas, tables and armchairs, which he simply vaulted over, in an attempt to get away. The chase ultimately ended when she stopped running. Bobby raced over to her and she phased backwards through someone. Bobby's kiss landed on Logan's cheek and a new chase immediately began, in which Bobby was running from Logan, who wanted to kill him. Jean was passing out the eggnog; Emma and Betsy were making peace after their fight when Betsy had been helping the Brotherhood; Scott and Hank were playing chess (the blue, furry doctor was winning); and Storm had finally calmed Tilde down and was telling her a story.

Kurt and Forge dropped onto the sofa beside Rogue. In the five months after she'd learned of her condition, Mystique had arrived with the news that the German teleporter and the Southern Belle were siblings. Naturally, Kurt had developed into a doting uncle who loved to spend time talking to his unborn niece or nephew.

"Will you tell us who he is now?" That was Forge's current pet peeve: the fact that Rogue was yet to reveal the identity of the father.

"No. Naht until ah see him again."

"Zat could be ages, _meine schwester_, vill you not just tell us his name?"

"No." And that was the end of the matter entirely.

-X-O-X-

That night, her usual _bête noire_ plagued her. She tossed and turned on the bed, still asleep, but obviously distressed. At the window, a pair of saddened red-on-black eyes watched her.

Remy LeBeau was her _beau_, the man she fell for in her year away from the mansion. In his hands was a parcel: an apple-green silk negligee and an emerald and gold necklace. Why wasn't her boyfriend – _husband?_ – coming to her aid? Could _he_ chase the nightmares away? The man was probably one of the X-Men, so maybe he was away on a mission. Either way, the love of Remy's life was having another nightmare and he couldn't let her sleep be disrupted by that.

Carefully and oh-so-silently, he opened the window and slipped in. He kicked off his boots and shrugged out of the brown leather trench coat he wore, slipping under the sheets with her. She instantly curled up to him and he held her in his arms, desperately trying to forget how perfectly she fitted there and how soft and warm her small frame was. She gradually relaxed and, although her dreams were now peaceful, he couldn't bear to leave her. Too late, he realised her breathing had changed and she was awake.

-X-O-X-

Rogue was enveloped in warmth and the smell of leather, tobacco and spices. Remy's scent, _her Remy_. God, she missed him, but this was the best dream she'd ever had. Strange, how his muscular chest felt so real to her.

"Remy?"

He became nervous.

"Remy? Is this real?"

"_Non_ , _chère_," he replied, deciding to convince her it was a dream and try to save himself the heartache of being told to his face that she didn't want or need him the way she used to, "Dis is jus' a dream."

"Oh," she sighed, her hand dropping to her belly, "Because ah wanted tah tell yah..."

"I already know," he said softly, gazing down at her belly, "An' I'm sorry we can't be t'gether, now."

"What?" she cried slightly, "Why? My babeh needs his daddeh."

_That_ shocked him. "Daddy?"

"Yahr babeh, Rem. Gawd, ah wish ah could tell thah real yah. Little Olivier. This wasn't how ah wanted tah tell yah."

"How did y' want t' tell m'?" he asked, still reeling from the revelation.

"Well, ah'd take yahr hand and place it on mah stomach," she said gently, carrying out each action she described, "An' ah'd look deep intah yahr gorgeous ahyes an' say: 'Remy, yah're gonna be a daddeh. This is our babeh, with yahr ahyes an' mah hair'. Then, ah'd reach up an' kiss yah an' promise that ah'll always love yah an' our babeh an' that we'll always be tahgether, no matter what."

"_Chère_ –" he tried to speak but her lips on his cut him off in a soft kiss.

"_Chère_ , what about y're boyfriend?"

"There's onleh yah, Rem, just yah. Why did ah even think that?"

It took him a second to remember that he'd told her it was a dream.

"Gawd, yah feel so _real_."

"Dat's b'cause I am."

There was silence for a minute. Outside, they could hear the gentle hooting of an owl.

"Remy?" she asked, sounding like a lost child, "Is that realleh yah?"

"De one an' only, _chère_."

She pinched herself, hard, on the wrist. "Ow!"

Remy grinned and kissed her wrist softly. "Dere, all better."

She smiled. "'Ah promise yah, _chère_, ah'll fahnd yah again'."

"I kept m' promise... Julian's dead, _chère_. He challenged m' a duel t' de death in de church, right 'fore Bella an' I said de vows. Y' can tell who won." He hung his head. "I didn' mean t'. I was gonna spare him on de condition dat I didn' marry Bella _mais_ he cheated – stabbed himself. Everyone t'ought I'd done it... Dey exiled m'. I've been lookin' fo' y' ever since."

"Yah found meh." She kissed him once more, trying to make up for eight long months of missing kisses. "Yah found meh."

…

They stayed up talking for the rest of the night, happy to be together once more (although there was that one point when he told her about Lorna that had her less than pleased).

"Join thah X-Men?" she suddenly asked, just as the sun rose. Christmas day.

"Anyt'ing fo' y', _chère_, anyt'ing."

-X-O-X-

Kitty and Tilde were the first ones awake. Naturally, the latter wanted to open presents _now_, so the older girl suggested they fetch Rogue first in an attempt to cheer up the mother-to-be. When Kitty phased them through Rogue's locked door, they were greeted with the touching sight of the Mississippi native snoozing comfortably in the arms of a sleeping man.

"Aww, she found him," Kitty cooed as she and Tilde melted back out the room.

It was better to leave the presents until later. Besides, there were gingerbread cookies on the tree – and candy canes.

-X-O-X-

For the first time in eight months, Rogue awoke feeling thoroughly contented. She had her Remy back. Outside her door, she could hear the hustle and bustle of the mansion's residents making their way to the living room for presents. She knew it was only a matter of time before someone came sticking their nose in (literally, in Logan's case) so she gently nudged her sleeping fiancé awake, smiling softly at his adorable groaning about how he'd "stayed up late and wanted more time to sleep, Tante".

"Y're mean, _chère_," he grumbled to her with a good natured look on his handsome face.

"Ah know, sugah, but yah've gotta get up or Logan's gonna fahnd yah."

"Let 'im," Remy sighed sleepily, caressing her distended belly, "Jus' 'cause de _homme_ don' like m' don't mean I can't spend time wit' y' an' _mon fils_."

"Tell yah what: yah go tah thah front door, ah'll let yah in an' ah can act all amazed that yah're here–"

"–An' I'll be here b'cause I spotted y' in de store an' t'ought y' were back here."

"Perfect." She smiled, still unable to get over the fact that he was back.

…

Their plan worked – well, sort of. It worked up until the point Logan caught Remy's scent as the Cajun entered the mansion, through the front door I might add, and the short tempered man instantly went on the offence. Pinning Remy to the wall and ignoring Rogue, Jean and Storm's yells to let him go (and Kitty and Emma's about how this man was a dish), he growled something about 'settling the score'. Nightcrawler joined in the 'I hate Gambit' crusade, up until three words caught their ears:

"He's thah father!"

Logan was so shocked that he dropped Remy, Nightcrawler was so incredulous that he fell to the floor (and had to be helped up by Wanda, who was visiting for Christmas with her sister, who – I might add – wasn't looking all that happy) and Forge punched the air as he finally got his answer.

Rogue walked forward, helping Remy to his feet and hugging him as tightly as her engorged belly would allow. "Ah'm naht losin' him again."

Logan growled a little but was ultimately defeated by the look on his 'daughter's' face. Lorna continued to give the Cajun evils but saw the love shining in his eyes as he looked upon the pregnant woman. Wanda had probably done something to the probability of Kurt killing Remy for impregnating his sister but, hey, it was Christmas and you couldn't exactly destroy the worldwide time of peace with a brutal homicide.

After a while, everyone had calmed down enough for Kurt to ask, "Gambit is zhe fazher?"

Every person in the room turned to look at Rogue, who was still encased in Remy's arms.

"Yeah, he is." She snuggled deeper into his embrace.

It took a moment for the news to sink in, until Bobby took a hesitant step forward (he, like the other X-Men who hadn't gone to Genosha that time Gambit had been there, had been told of how the Cajun had blown up the island) and held out his hand, which Remy took. "Uh… Welcome to the family, I guess."

"_Merci_…?"

"Bobby."

"Booby."

Rogue giggled as Bobby furrowed his brow. Remy had started 'the nickname game'. Slowly, the rest of the X-Men welcomed him into the family as Remy came up with his own name for each of them (which included _Chaton_, Stormy and _Ange_). Logan was the last.

"You be good to her, Gumbo–"

"No problem, _M'sieur_ Claws."

"–Or they won't find the pieces."

"If I hurt her, I'll tell y' de bes' hidin' places fo' dem."

Logan gave a nod and Rogue hugged the two most important men in her life. It was perfect.

-X-O-X-

On the first of January, Rogue and Remy shared their New Year's kiss in the Institute's med-lab – right after she delivered Olivier Etienne LeBeau. They were married six months later, after she received the news that they were expecting baby Rebecca.

* * *

**Merry Christmas to all, and to all, a good night!**

**Hope ya'll got some good pressies (I got an amp for my guitar! ^_^)**


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